Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Groundbreaking Gay Film “Making Love”, Starring Harry Hamlin

In the early 1980s, shortly before the AIDS crisis and not long after the Stonewall-inspired movement of the late '60s and '70s, Hollywood finally decided to portray gay relationships in their mainstream movies.

One of the first and best was Arthur Hiller’s Making Love from 1982. Michael Ontkean plays Zach, a young doctor who has been married for a few years to his college sweetheart (movingly played by Kate Jackson) who suddenly finds that he is attracted to men. One man in particular, a handsome writer (played by the drop-dead gorgeous Harry Hamlin) makes Zach’s impulse undeniable.

It’s questionable how accurate this film’s portrayal of the gay impulse is. Allegedly Ontkean’s character had “absolutely no idea” that he was gay before. Also, the depiction of gay love between Ontkean and Hamlin seems super tame by today’s standards. We actually only see the two men kiss twice.

However, it’s important to remember that this movie was the first of its kind and it shows all the characters in a sympathetic light. No stereotypical bitchy boys or gay bffs here. These are realistic characters with no intention of hurting each other, whose world is changed because of the realization of who they are.

And if nothing else, we get a frequently shirtless Harry Hamlin, which would automatically make this a gay favorite.

At a recent screening of the film, Actors Harry Hamlin and Screenwriters Barry Sandler and A Scott Berg shared that at original previews of the film, many viewers booed and walked out at seeing the famous kiss between Hamlin and Ontkean.

At the screening weekend, the audience cheered. We still have a long way to go, but we have come a long way so far.

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